“Porn: Past, Present, and Future”

As perhaps the first ever full course on pornography at the University of Amsterdam, Jennifer has been invited by the University of Amsterdam’s Sociology Department and faculty member Marie-Louise Janssen to co-teach a course in Spring 2025.

This course will be offered in the minor “Introduction To Gender and Sexuality Studies.”

The working title is “Porn: Past, Present, and Future.”

Course description

Coming soon!

Porn studies at the University of Amsterdam

The University of Amsterdam doesn’t offer a degree or course in Porn Studies. However, multiple lecturers and professors have included segments on various elements of porn (feminist, trans, alternative) in the various departments. Among those are Sara Janssen, Prof dr. Eliza Steinbock, Prof. dr. Misha Kavka, and Marie-Louise Janssen, to name a few.

Jennifer has  been invited over the years to lecture about porn in several of the the University of Amsterdam’s departments, among those Film Studies, Sociology, Presentation & Preservation (curation), Media Studies, and New Media & Digital Culture. Jennifer also has taught in the same  departments and others at other universities, including in Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Utrecht, a multidisciplinary honors course at the University of Leiden, and others.

And while the University of Amsterdam doesn’t offer a Porn Studies course, Jennifer was the first ever student to write a Master’s thesis about porn in the Film Studies department. Initially a bit controversial, Jennifer won the faculty over with her obvious commitment to both the theory and the genre of porn. Working with Prof dr Thomas Elsaesser and Warren Buckland, she earned her Film Studies  Master’s degree with the thesis “Engaging the Body: The Possibilities and Limitations of Character-Based Theory in Explaining Pornography.”

More to come

We will post more information as the class preparations develop!

Inviting Jennifer to teach

Does your university or educational institution have a need for a guest lecture or course that deals with porn, feminist porn, ethics in sexual representation, consent in sexual representation, sexual diversity, sex scenes in mainstream cinema, intimacy, empathy and/or sympathy in porn, or an academic theoretical approach to understanding porn?  Write to jennifer [at]  blueartichokefilms [dot] com, and visit the Curation page and the Jennifer’s Biography pages for details. And keep an eye on jenniferlyonbell.com for more info and videos coming soon!